Bretton Cole
Editor-in-chief
The journey to restore the Crowder network that was infected over the summer has been a rocky road to tread. Roadblocks and other issues have hampered the speed with which the Crowder’s system issues have been resolved. However, Crowder staff sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
For the most part, everything is in working order. The campus as well as apartments and student housing all have internet access. The labs are up and running, and computers for student use are available as resources. However, up and running doesn’t mean everything is seamless. In fact, students living on campus have faced some of the worst of the outages during this fall semester.
Despite the obstacles Crowder had getting the systems running, Crowder staff has done all they can to smooth the situation and help students the best they can. Roughrider Village has had persisting connectivity issues since the systems were initially restored.
Direct of Campus Life, Mark Aubuchon, explains, “We needed to do something to let the students know we hear their pain and feel their frustrations. We sent them a gift card to the book store to let them know we understand how difficult it’s been.”
The gift card, worth $50 for the Crowder Bookstore, was one of the things Aubuchon and the Vice President of Student Affairs, Amy Rand, decided was necessary after several discussions.
“It was a little way for the school to say that we want to make it right, if we can,” Aubuchon noted.
The lack of internet has been an issue for students, especially when they live on campus and rely on access to complete homework and stay caught up in their classes. Aubuchon remarked how it was difficult to see students frustrated and not be able to help them.
“It’s frustrating when students come to complain, which they have every right to be upset, when we don’t have any control over making that better for them,” Aubuchon explained. The goal for Aubuchon and others who work with student housing is to help the students. When the problems students faced were out of their control, it was hard for faculty and staff to know how to help them.
Overall, the network situation is a fluid one. Despite many things being fixed, there is a long way to perfection. The internet is still patchy, and upload and download speeds are very slow. Especially at 6 p.m., the Internet slows down when students come home and get online.
The college and IT department are still working diligently towards a long-term solution, and as winter break approaches, students and staff anticipate progress to be made to return the network to optimal performance.
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